Tuesday, April 01, 2008

7AM - Boat trip to Maya ruins of Yaxchilán.
It is slightly overcast, and a bit windy as we head downstream from our Usumacinta River Camp.

Path to the ticket office.

Entering the park.

Wonderful map.

The path to the Palace of Yachilán continues for about 300 meters, where we come to a wall. Where to go? There is a small dark tunnel. Is that where to go? Hmmmmm? Little Mavicito and I go into this tunnel. In the semi-darkness, we wend our way thru the tunnel, and come to a stairway!

Stairway leading to the Great Plaza.

In the pic below, I am sitting in the Great Plaza. The building containing the stairway [in the pic above] is behind me.

Entrance to the Great Plaza.

I am unable with words, to describe to you how very beautiful are these Mayan palace grounds. The green grass may have been here in the days of the Maya. I sure hope so, because the green grass enhances this archaeological site so very much.

A bit north of the Great Plaza entrance.

Continuing north a bit more, we come to a ball court. Do you remember similar ball courts at the other Mayan sites that we have visited?

The ball court.

We continued on, and came to the northern end of the Great Plaza.

Looking south into the Great Plaza, in the direction from which we have come.

In front of us is a huge stairway leading up soooooo high. In front of these stairs is a monolith of one of the main gods. A lesser god is to the right.

Monolith representing a god.

The great staircase leading up to Building 33.

Stairs leading up and west of the Grand Plaza.

Midway tier of the stairs leading to Building 33.

Midway up the stairs.

An impressive structure below Building 33.

At the top of the stairs, we come to Building 33.

Pequeña Acropolis is quite a ways away from the Grand Plaza. We wind our way up a path, that is sometimes very steep. Finally, and thankfully, the path descends. There are no signs, and we hope that we are going the right way. The path begins to ascend again, and we come to Pequeña [small] Acropolis.

Pequeña Acropolis.

Now is the time to return to the park entrance. Again, there are no direction signs. We find a path, beginning with stairs leading down. This has got to be the way to go, and we follow this path. Down, down, down, we descend, hoping on hope that this is the right way. Finally, we see thru the jungle, some signs of life below. This is the right path!